Laundry detergent products are sold and packaged in various forms. For example, liquid laundry detergent or laundry and bleach additives may be provided in bulk such that one package contains multiple doses. Consumers will open the package and meter doses into the washing machine and/or laundry liquor as needed.
Although widely used, bulk liquid product forms may have associated issues in terms of packaging, storage, transportation and/or convenience of use. For example, liquid detergent products are typically sold in bottles which may add significant cost to the finished product. Additionally, liquid detergent products may comprise a substantial amount of water in the formula. The water content can increase the bulk of the product, which may in turn adversely impact the associated shipping and storage costs. Additionally, liquid laundry products can be messy. This messiness may cause inconvenience to the consumer when attempting to meter out an accurate dose as it may result in drips and residue on the outside of the bottle as well as in the dispenser of the washing machine.
Liquid detergent and laundry and bleach additive formulations may also be characterized by physical stability challenges including, but not limited to, phase separation, gelling and creaming, any of which may lead to a shorter shelf life.
Some laundry detergent products are sold in unit dose form. Often, the unit dose comprises a liquid and/or solid detergent packaged within a water soluble single or multi-compartment pouch. The pouches may be made of water soluble films which tendency to burst upon storage, particularly if moisture is transferred onto the pouch, via, for example damp hands reaching into the pack of pouches. Multicompartment pouches are known, and are sometimes used to separate physically or chemically, incompatible actives such as bleaches, enzymes and the like, or additional benefit agents; however this may lead to a costly process. and/or require use of costly stabilizing aids A further issue relates to use of certain solvents such as ethanol or propane dial as adjuncts to permit the formulation of certain active, are volatile and do not really add to the overall performance efficacy of the laundry detergent system. Many laundry products are marketed today as multi benefit products (e.g. cleaning with shine, anti corrosion etc type benefits and often require sophisticated encapsulation technologies to permit a ‘delayed’ or ‘triggered release’ profile, for example during the rinsing stage. Tablets are also known; however an issue with such tablets is that they may have a tendency to crumble (e.g. upon transportation) owing to their brittleness.
The aforementioned issues may be addressed by providing a liquid formulation in the alternative form of a porous dissolvable solid structure containing little or no water. For example, such an article could be packaged as a single unit or in multiple units and shipped at a lower cost as compared to the traditional liquid form equivalent. Such an article could eliminate the difficulty and mess associated with handling a liquid dishwashing formulation since no metered pouring would be required. Moreover, many of the stability issues of the liquid form would be eliminated via physical separation such that actives could be combined in new ways that were heretofore impractical and/or impossible.
For porous dissolvable solid structures to be a practical form in which to supply a liquid detergent cleaning composition to the consumer, several further challenges must be addressed. For example, it may be required that a relatively high activity of around 20 g of actives such as performance ingredients be incorporated into the foams at a high enough density such that the amount of performance active that is delivered is sufficient to deliver comparable cleaning under the same conditions. In this way, the use of a porous dissolvable solid structure provides several advantages over the like use of a film.
Based upon the foregoing, a need exists for a flexible, bendable, soft to the touch, dissolvable porous solid structure which can be easily and quickly formulated and manufactured and that provides the properties of flexibility, dissolution and fabric conditioning desired by consumers. Such a structure should be provided to the consumer in a size that is easy to dose such as in the drawer of a front-loading washing machine, or easy to dose in a sachet for a hand-rinsing application.
Some of the advantages of the development include the following:
                a) Convenient, lightweight, ‘portable’, dose controllable product        a) Permits high loading of fragrance and dry substrate form enables perfume diffusion into ‘headspace’ (impression e.g. in store/laundry room, etc).        b) Enables formulations with lower solvent and stabilizer content.        c) Enables formulations of metal catalysts (or other bleaches), hueing dyes, enzymes such as lipases.        d) Reduces potential for messiness.        e) Makes compacted formulas appear larger making dose size more believable.        f) Removes the need for ‘clear’ formulas        g) Removes the need for rheology structuring agents        h) Will aid dissolution of compacted products that may otherwise not dispense properly        
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a dissolvable solid fabric and home care product that can be conveniently and quickly dissolved to reconstitute a liquid product for ease of use and application (with similar performance as today's liquid fabric and home care products). It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a product that can be produced in an economical manner by physical aeration followed by subsequent drying. It is an even further object of the present invention to provide such a product with desirable flexibility.